I have an Adept Doctor - if I change him to say Farming will he still go and heal automatically? Or does the Check Mark need to be on doctor?

That's a good question. I was wondering the same thing.

Also, what's better for my colony, now at a population of 15, with over 65,000 tech points... to go ahead and buy 3rd level medicine, or to wait for 3rd level food? I worry that I'll run out of doctors, as mine are getting old, and the population is all moving to the 2nd generation, but I'm also a little concerned about how much my current food resources can supply.

What I'll do is just not check any skill on one villager and train them to heal. That way when there is no one to heal, they contribute in another area. Seems to work well.

I do the same

if you have other skills checks, they will occassionally decide to heal someone, but it is not guaranty

So they will heal people without healing checked? Because I've had about enough of my doctor enjoying the pond.

Yes they will. Once I have 20 or so villagers, I'll train two of the in healing and let them be free spirited (as in nothing checked). It has worked great.

ooh, your doctor will dodder around doing as he pleases when there is no one sick

what VI is saying is to train your doctor in farming or building as well as healing, and then leave it completely unchecked

they will still enjoy the pond and play sometimes, but they will also farm some when there is no one needing healing

one way to train a second Doc is to make him study herbs.

I rename mine DOC whatever and when I am keeping an eye on the game I have him work on another skill to develop other skills. I can make him see a sick villager if he is too busy to notice. Then when I go away or Quit, I take his check marks off and he becomes just Doc again.

The changing his name is just so I can find him easier.

That is a good idea, hcs! I have renamed all my adept doctors to Dr. Kato, Dr. Tipa, etc. now, thanks to your suggestion. Now they have a prestigious title as well!

I'm very glad to know that there is a way to leave doctors doing other things while still healing people. Thanks for the tips, guys!

Do they have to be Master Doctor or is trainee or adept good enough?

I never thought about "nothing checked" and will do that now.

I just started a new "hard" game and one of the children was 13 and one 14 - it was the good news and the bad news LOL - but as they were all female as soon as they were old enough to work I put them on research. The lone male has done nothing but learn doctoring. It is a new stratagy I am trying. Oh and I took the oldest female and mated/breed her so I would have someone to help collect.